Fort Lauderdale Boatsetter is the leading people-to-people boat rental online community, which has relocated headquarter operations from Aventura to the boating capital of the world in time for the annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

Fort Lauderdale Boatsetter is the leading people-to-people boat rental online community, which has relocated headquarter operations from Aventura to the boating capital of the world in time for the annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

Boatsetter.com’s offerings of water toys — about 5,000 vessels — currently range from “15-foot runabouts to 120-foot well-appointed yachts and everything in between,” Baumgarten said.

Prospective renters — newbies or experienced boaters— undergo pre-screening checks to ensure they meet insurance, boat safety and boat-owner requirements, she said. Consumers can rent boats without a licensed captain if they qualify.

“There’s no cost to sign up or join or even to list your boat,” Baumgarten explained. “We take a percentage of every rental transaction.”

Boat owners generally rent their vessels for a half day, full day or for longer customized charters, she said.

Among the Fort Lauderdale area boat listings on the website this week was a 26-foot Chris Craft sport deck boat for $395 plus fees for half-day rental. Another was a 65-foot Azimut yacht with captain included for $2,800 plus fees for a similar duration.

South Florida has been a “big market” for Boatsetter since its launch, but it’s now charting an expansion into five other U.S. markets: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Texas, Baumgarten said.

Internationally, Boatsetter is making inroads in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, where it has more than 1,000 boats listed, she said.

“My mission is to make boating affordable and accessible to anyone, anywhere,” said Baumgarten, a San Francisco transplant. She grew up in a boating family and holds an MBA from Stanford.

“What we’re doing is creating is an entirely new industry that has not existed before,” she said.”It’s a big challenge [but] the first step is to create awareness.”

Hurdles aside, Boatsetter has enjoyed early success with thousands of rentals and boat listings and “happy customers,” she said.

“We’re probably on track to do about 10,000 transactions by the end of the year,” Baumgarten said.

Partnerships with like-minded outfits are also helping to spread awareness of boat-sharing.

At Gulfstream Boat Club, which has locations in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth, owner Alex Warner said he supplements business by renting his larger vessels on Boatsetter when they’re idle.

He also benefits when he refers club members to Boatsetter when they are looking for boat rentals outside of his Palm Beach County locations.

Boatsetter has become a “trusted brand and platform,” that he and his customers can turn to for their specific boating needs, Warner said.